An age-old problem for parents with small children is in transporting them without having to carry them. Historically, the perambulator or baby carriage was used; devices of this type resembled a crib with wheels, a handle, and a cover, and the baby was laid in the carriage for transport. More recently, parents typically employ a stroller for this purpose. Strollers of a wide variety of styles have been developed, but the basic stroller generally includes a cloth seat, suspended within a wheeled frame, and a restraint of some type to keep the child in the seated position. Other solutions include front carriers, sling carriers, and backpack carriers, all of which have their own drawbacks, primarily because the parent must bear the burden of the child's weight. As the child grows older, comfort for the parent becomes an issue.
While the stroller is indispensable to modern parents, there are drawbacks to its use as well. Babies spend a great deal of time confined in a sitting position—in a high chair at the dinner table, and in a car seat while traveling—and the time spent restrained in a stroller adds to that seated time. Most young children can only tolerate the restrained seated position for a short time before becoming antsy, irritable, and bored. For older babies and toddlers, who have begun to pull up or stand, the tolerance for a restrained seated position may be quite short, because of their inherent desire to stand.
Additionally, recently published reports correlate the confining of babies to seated positions with the later sedentary preferences linked to childhood obesity, as well as to delayed development. As noted by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, “Confining babies and young children to stroller, playpens, and car and infant seats for hours at a time may delay development such as rolling over, crawling, walking, and even cognitive development.” Consequently, there is a need to encourage physical activity and to discourage restraint to a seated position, where it is feasible to do so.
The use of high chairs is certainly reasonable and valid for a child who is eating, and the proper restraint of a child into a car seat is legally required when the child is traveling by car. However, there is a distinct need for an improved stroller that permits the child to be safely restrained and strolled, while being kept in a supported, upright position, and in a safe, entertaining environment, so that the baby is afforded the opportunity to use developing muscles. Such a stroller would be an alternative to constant seated restraint, but would also ideally retain the familiar and convenient features of a conventional stroller. These features typically include the ability quickly and easily to fold the stroller into a compact configuration for storage and transport, the availability of adjustable, comfortable handles for parents of different heights, the availability of storage space for a diaper bag or the like, fully pivotable wheels, a canopy for shielding the baby from the elements, and a structurally sturdy design.